Ever since he was a child, Terry Stockdale knew his father's footlocker contained memorabilia he brought back with him from World War II. Among them was a flag that belonged to a fallen Japanese soldier — an enemy of the United States at the time.
Family members and friends wrote their well wishes and gifted these Good Luck Flags (hinomaru yosegaki) to Japanese soldiers right before they deployed.
"I had always thought it would be nice to actually find the family and return it," Stockdale told LittleThings. "I’ve always wanted to do that.”
His father, Glenn Owen Stockdale, who served in the 163rd Infantry Regiment of the Montana National Guard, didn't hold the same sentiment and greatly opposed returning the flag to the fallen soldier's family.
"I can’t speak for him. It’s just war, what it does to people. I think that’s what it was," Stockdale said of his dad's view. "It was a very bloody, tough war." (World War II took the lives of more than 400,000 Americans, more than 2 million of the Japanese, and millions more.)
But more than a decade after his father passed away on August 24, 2001, Stockdale made it his mission to return the flag — and he did.
See the emotional moment below…
Terry Stockdale's father, a Billings, MT, native, fought in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines from December 1942 to March 1945.
When he returned home from war, Glenn Owen Stockdale brought back memorabilia from his time at war, just like many other soldiers.
One of these was the Good Luck Flag belonging to fallen Japanese soldier, Yoshigusu Kishi.
After discovering what the flag represented, Terry always desired to return it to the fallen soldier's family, although his father didn't agree.
But when Mr. Stockdale passed away, Terry made sure to get the flag back to where he felt it belonged.
Stockdale reached out to the Obon Society, an Oregon organization founded in 2009 that reunites fallen soldiers' belongings with their families.
Cofounders Rex and Keiko Ziak, who have returned more than 50 of these flags to date, were able to locate the two children of the fallen soldier.
Both living in Japan, son Masaru Kishi, and daughter Kayoko Mori, were raised by their mother (the wife of Kishi). She passed away in 1999.
While Mr. Ziak says some families prefer to privately receive the flag, the Kishi children were willing to publicize the reunion and meet Stockdale.
The latter quickly flew to Japan for what would become a ceremony he'd never forget.
In Japan, Stockdale was invited to an elegant dinner attended by many officials as well as the Kishis.
Aside from being offered delicious food, Stockdale got to interact with the children. That's when he realized just how much this flag meant to the children.
“It’s like a real person to them,” he said. “It was more like a person to them than just a flag.”
Mr. Ziak says such feelings are common for many of the family members they've interacted with. For example, he and his wife recalled a story of a 70-year-old Japanese man who had no recollection of his fallen father. He only had a picture of his father holding him as a baby before he went off to war.
When he received his father’s Good Luck Flag, the man sent a letter to the Ziaks saying, “This is the first time I have ever felt my father close to me.”
Like Stockdale, Mr. Ziak hopes this story will encourage more people to return these flags, adding that no matter where a person is from, the family bond is generally the same.
"When a family member disappears, we all feel that hole," he said. "And if anything comes back — whether it’s a pair of eyeglasses, or shoes, or a wallet, or a book — that person returns… whether it’s Japanese or American, we are all the same. We all have family and family never forgets."
Watch parts of the emotional ceremony above and please SHARE if you believe in the power of family!
